Ever feel sorry for yourself when you have to go back to work after a holiday or vacation? I do, or I did I should say, last Sunday. Yep, Sunday Jan. 1. It's New Year's Day and I'm going to work at 6:30am. Me, and the kid who delivers our newspaper.
On top of that, I'm thinking about my specific work: "It's New Year's Day - not many people will come to church, should we really be going through the whole rigamarole for staff, elders, and Ministry Partners to serve on a holiday, when not many people will come anyway?"
And then the people of God worshipped the living God, through Jesus Christ, together. And it was good. And I remembered.
Worship is what we do. Its the primary business the church is in. Not just when its convenient (because life is not about me and my schedule), not just when the biggest crowd possible will be there (because church is not about crowds/success/failure/momentum). But when God says to do it. Every seven days.
The church exists for many reasons, but its first privileged duty is to give witness to the centrality of Jesus Christ by worshipping him weekly. Whether its thousands in a cathedral, or two families in an underground house church in China - our gathering is a witness, a solid proclamation of eternity in the midst of cultures and people who may or may not notice.
Genesis 1 (supported by the 10 commandments and the rest of Scripture) teaches us that God created the entire world to run rhythmically on a seven day cycle. And the seventh day is for rest and worship. No matter where that day should fall in the vicissitudes of human culture, calendars and schedules. Every church's pastors, staff, and members have been set aside by God for this high and holy purpose. Weekly. (FYI we allowed our Saturday Christmas Eve worship to 'count' for weekly worship the week before, because we do not live under law).
This aspect of weekly worship really is more about faithfulness than fruitfulness. Although fruit matters too. After our second service on New Year's (and yes, it was a small crowd), one of my favorite couples, Sue and Thom came up to me with tears in their eyes. Sue said 'today is our 2nd anniversary of coming to Lake Forest and to the Lord, its about the only New Year's resolution we've ever kept together - that we would attend church the first Sunday of the year - and we've never left, and are so in love with Christ.' Thom said something like 'after 70 years of living for myself, I'm now living for Christ - because I was drawn here by love, not coercion or people convincing me of something.'
I'm glad we worshipped the Sunday of New Year's two years ago so we were HERE bearing witness to the centrality of Christ, at the same time the Spirit of Christ was leading Thom and Pam to seek him first in the New Year. And I'm glad we worshipped this Jan 1 as well.
May you faithfully carry on your service to God and worship of Him this year, week in week out, including the every-seven-days rhythm of worship.
I love Lake Forest and the love through Jesus shines every seven days all year through for all of us. Thank you for leading all of us closer to Jesus Mike.
Posted by: robin kenniston | January 03, 2012 at 09:21 AM
What a wonderful way to start the new year -- the very best first thing we could do: praise and worship our Lord! I was so excited by the vision of the "feast" which lay before us!
I mentioned to others: I think starting each year off with at least one worship service, no matter which day of the week it may fall, would be a terrific way to remind us to put Christ and his commission to us as believers first and foremost to any other resolutions we may make. This service made a huge positive difference in how I was looking at starting the new year.
I thank God daily for Lake Forest and leading me to it.
Posted by: Another Mike | January 03, 2012 at 01:20 PM